German-born photographer RENATE ALLER has been photographing the Atlantic Ocean for over a decade from a single point on the fabled Hamptons coastline. The sublime beauty of this view, which Aller directly connects to the great nineteenth century German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, is also a metaphor for the landscape of the human emotions. Aller’s viewpoint is static, but the changing weather and light allow for a diverse series of images that open up a vast ‘visual library’ of memories and associations. Printed in Germany, the book captures the subtle mystery of her larger prints and the original oceanscapes.
Co-edited with an essay by German art historian Jasmin Seck and contributions by Hamburger Kunsthalle Museum’s contemporary art curator Dr. Petra Roettig and New York critic Richard B. Woodward that place Aller’s work both in the context of landscape photography and the history of images of the East End’s southern shore.